Austria

Shoberl, Frederic, 1775-1853Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 226K words
Chapters: 23

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Austria by Frederic ShoberlAuthor: Shoberl, Frederic, 1775-1853,Language: English, Class: DB: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Release Date: May 28, 2013

Editor's review

This is an English work on Austria by Frederic Shoberl, classified in the public-domain catalog under Austrian history. It was first published early on and belongs to the tradition of nineteenth-century European regional topography and historical writing. Its value lies first in its sources and narrative perspective: the book presents a contemporary European author's overall description of Austria's geography, administrative divisions, customs, and historical development, and can be consulted by readers studying nineteenth-century historical-geographical writing, the formation of regional ideas, and how the English-speaking world understood Central Europe. The text is in English, and the barrier to reading lies mainly in vocabulary and old-fashioned expressions rather than theoretical difficulty. As a public-domain ebook, it usually has no modern introduction, maps, or notes; specific data and boundary descriptions should be checked against current reference works. It is suitable for browsing as supplementary material for area studies or historiography, not for use as a contemporary travel guide or general history textbook.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying nineteenth-century European historical-geographical writing and the tradition of regional topography
Historians of historiography concerned with how the English-speaking world understood Central Europe and Austria
Advanced students who need original English materials as supplementary reading for area studies
Readers interested in old-style English travelogue narration who can accept old spellings

Not a good fit for

Readers planning a trip to Austria who need current practical information
Beginners hoping for a modern general history or systematic textbook
Readers impatient with old-fashioned English and outdated geographical descriptions

Reading tips

Look at the table of contents first to grasp the overall structure, then read the chapters on geography, administrative divisions, or customs according to interest.
While reading, consult modern maps and reference works and note the correspondences between old and current place names.
Treat the book's statements as historical sources rather than conclusions, and keep records when checking data and boundary descriptions.
If used for research, excerpt passages by topic and read them alongside other regional topographies of the same period.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a travel guide?

No. It belongs to earlier historical and regional writing on Austria, with content tending toward overall description of geography, administrative divisions, and historical development; it does not provide current transport, accommodation, or sightseeing information and cannot replace a modern travel guide.

Are the book's data still credible today?

The data reflect the knowledge of the author's era and may differ considerably from today's situation. Read it as historical material, and check content on population, boundaries, and administrative divisions against contemporary reference works before citing it.

Is the English difficult to read?

The text is in English, but the book is early, with old-style spelling and sentence patterns, and place-name renderings differ from today's conventions. Readers with upper-intermediate English proficiency can make progress; keep a dictionary at hand and consult modern maps when necessary.

Does the public-domain edition have maps and notes?

Such Project Gutenberg texts are generally prepared from the original typesetting and usually contain no maps, notes, or introduction added by modern editors. If maps are needed for research, prepare a modern atlas or historical map materials separately.

Comments

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About the author

Shoberl, Frederic, 1775-1853 Author

Frederic Shoberl (1775–1853) was an English writer and compiler active in the first half of the nineteenth century; details of his life are limited in publicly available sources. Two of his works are held here, both belonging to the genres of historical narrative and regional description: Narrative of the Most Remarkable Events Which Occurred in and near Leipzig recounts major events in and around Leipzig in a chronicle-like, documentary manner, while Austria is an introductory account of that country's conditions and scenery. Judging from these works, he was skilled at organizing historical materials, narrating events and describing foreign lands, with a plain, factual style aimed at English readers eager to learn about continental European history and geography. His writings are now consulted mainly as examples of early nineteenth-century European historical and geographical writing, and retain some value as historical sources.